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adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical trauma, War
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage
Minor: Car accident
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, War, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was gut wrenching. As a nurse who previously worked for the VA, this book really had me feel a lot of things. You hit the ground running with the story starting quickly and you jumping in to Vietnam. While titled “The Women,” this is more about one fictional woman’s experience serving in Vietnam as a nurse, returning home to a country disgusted by her part in the war, and coming to terms with her new self with continues hardships and traumas. I was more invested in the war story than her personal story, and found the second half of the book a lot more predictable (men suck, tbh), but I still felt for her and couldn’t put this book down. This was my first Kristin Hannah but it won’t be my last.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, War
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Classism
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has gotten so much hype and it definitely had its moments. I do think that understanding the role women have played in war (including the Vietnam War) is important and think this could have been a great work of historical fiction BUT I felt like it became too much of a caricature in multiple places. Frankie also forgives her parents in like 5 seconds for denying her PTSD for years? The ending bugged me more than the rest of the book did .
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Miscarriage, War
Minor: Suicide attempt
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“War, huh, yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”
This was the phrase I said almost every time I took a break from reading this book. The graphic descriptions of the war were hard to get through and I just kept thinking “why.”
I read this book as part of my women’s history month read. It certainly told a part of history I didn’t know about and was resistant to understand… I’m glad I allowed a little of these women’s stories to enter into my being.
With that said, the story went on for way too long and with felt tedious at times. I didn’t really like the main character, she, too, was tedious.
This was the phrase I said almost every time I took a break from reading this book. The graphic descriptions of the war were hard to get through and I just kept thinking “why.”
I read this book as part of my women’s history month read. It certainly told a part of history I didn’t know about and was resistant to understand… I’m glad I allowed a little of these women’s stories to enter into my being.
With that said, the story went on for way too long and with felt tedious at times. I didn’t really like the main character, she, too, was tedious.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Classism
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book is an emotional ride for the MC Francis. The 1st half of the book outlining her Viet Nam tours is more compelling then the 2nd half. The latter part, her mental stability and re-emergence into her life back home, moves slower but is still engaging for the reader.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, War
Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not like this book.
Some of that I chalk up to the fact that patriotic historical fiction will never be my cup of tea. I find the "rah-rah" pro-America stance completely unrelatable, especially for a war where our actions were so incredibly abhorrant and our justification so flimsy. While The Women does include some info about the injustices committed by Americans in the Vietnam war, it is done in a way that feels akin to "there were some bad apples but the overall push was righteous" which I do not agree with nor do I accept as historically accurate. I did not stomach the overall patriotism -- the passionate faith in the fundamental goodness and justice in America -- well whatsoever.
Some of the descriptions of Vietnam and the people of the region were casually racist. Very subtle things, easy to miss on both the author and readers' parts. One example is the first time the nurses visit a local hospital. They received a "welcome ritual" -- aka a leader or staffer being a decent host by offering them a drink -- and the narrator's woes that "no one there spoke English." The second part of this feels more disagreeable to me. The assumption or implication that the language barrier was the fault of the locals and that English ought to be the default language seems (definitely subtle, probably unconsiously) racist. Barb, the only Black main character, is hardly a person for about half of the book. She had pictures of MLK Jr, Malcom X, and Mohammud Ali on her wall (no family??) despite the fact all three of those figures were adamantly anti-war. Read as incredibly lazy to me that the author illustrated Barb's Blackness and radical nature (which we don't actually see glimpses of until abiut 3/4ths through the book despite Barb being described quintessentially as "the radical") despite all 3 of those figures' stances. I was not in Voetnam and I am not a Black radical...but if those were the 3 people you cared most about...I can't see how you'd volunteer for a war they were all very clearly against.
On that note. The writing was not good, dude. It was fine, but not "good." There was a lot of explaining in words things we ought to have (or in some cases already could have) discerned from clues and details in the rest of the text. Frankie did not need to call herself "a good girl who had never done drugs, not even in college" -- we could guess it from her family, uptight nature, her internal dialogues about sin.
And on that note. One of the very few things I liked about this book was the way trauma destroyed Frankie's adherence to religion. It illustraded how truly to her core she was shaken by her experiences.
Other stuff I didn't love:
the fact that 2 out of 3 of the people Frankie lost in the war came back from the dead. What? Really?
How apparently irresistible Frankie is to nearly (actually?) Every man in her life. Felt like a weird flavor of the "chosen one" trope.
Frankie's nurse friends Barb and Ethel frequently dropped everything for her, but they never needed her in that way?
These were all just ... unbelieveable aspects of the story to me.
I did not like this book. I will jot reread it. I will not read more Kristin Hannah. I will not recommend this book to anyone, except maybe war veterans with PTSD.
Some of that I chalk up to the fact that patriotic historical fiction will never be my cup of tea. I find the "rah-rah" pro-America stance completely unrelatable, especially for a war where our actions were so incredibly abhorrant and our justification so flimsy. While The Women does include some info about the injustices committed by Americans in the Vietnam war, it is done in a way that feels akin to "there were some bad apples but the overall push was righteous" which I do not agree with nor do I accept as historically accurate. I did not stomach the overall patriotism -- the passionate faith in the fundamental goodness and justice in America -- well whatsoever.
Some of the descriptions of Vietnam and the people of the region were casually racist. Very subtle things, easy to miss on both the author and readers' parts. One example is the first time the nurses visit a local hospital. They received a "welcome ritual" -- aka a leader or staffer being a decent host by offering them a drink -- and the narrator's woes that "no one there spoke English." The second part of this feels more disagreeable to me. The assumption or implication that the language barrier was the fault of the locals and that English ought to be the default language seems (definitely subtle, probably unconsiously) racist. Barb, the only Black main character, is hardly a person for about half of the book. She had pictures of MLK Jr, Malcom X, and Mohammud Ali on her wall (no family??) despite the fact all three of those figures were adamantly anti-war. Read as incredibly lazy to me that the author illustrated Barb's Blackness and radical nature (which we don't actually see glimpses of until abiut 3/4ths through the book despite Barb being described quintessentially as "the radical") despite all 3 of those figures' stances. I was not in Voetnam and I am not a Black radical...but if those were the 3 people you cared most about...I can't see how you'd volunteer for a war they were all very clearly against.
On that note. The writing was not good, dude. It was fine, but not "good." There was a lot of explaining in words things we ought to have (or in some cases already could have) discerned from clues and details in the rest of the text. Frankie did not need to call herself "a good girl who had never done drugs, not even in college" -- we could guess it from her family, uptight nature, her internal dialogues about sin.
And on that note. One of the very few things I liked about this book was the way trauma destroyed Frankie's adherence to religion. It illustraded how truly to her core she was shaken by her experiences.
Other stuff I didn't love:
How apparently irresistible Frankie is to nearly (actually?) Every man in her life. Felt like a weird flavor of the "chosen one" trope.
Frankie's nurse friends Barb and Ethel frequently dropped everything for her, but they never needed her in that way?
These were all just ... unbelieveable aspects of the story to me.
I did not like this book. I will jot reread it. I will not read more Kristin Hannah. I will not recommend this book to anyone, except maybe war veterans with PTSD.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Grief, War
Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage